Not quite -- OpenLDAP has always handled the encoding for me when using
ldapadd, slapadd, and ldapmodify. Perhaps the syntax of the attribute you
are adding isn't correct in the schema? Is this a custom attribute?
predefined attribute? What does the schema definition for that attribute
describe it as?

!!! Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to hear! What it turns out
is that I was setting the gecos field to the utf encoded string which
apparantly does not approve. All of the other fields seem cool with it.
Thanks much!